Gearing back up after a recent break from racing, Gerald Ciolek believes he has the necessary condition to chase stage wins in the Presidential Tour of Turkey. The Milan Sanremo winner wasn’t in the mix yesterday, with his sprint train getting swamped and the German rolling across the line in 50th place.
However today’s stage offers another opportunity, and there are several more stages which should suit him this week.
“We have a few sprints here, we want to do some good results,” he said in the video interview below, adding that he believes his fitness is where it needs to be to achieve that goal.
Ciolek moved to the MTN Qhubeka team this year after two years with the Omega Pharma Quick Step setup. He has gone from being one of the bigger names on the Belgian squad to being the clear team leader with the African team, and it seems to have fired him up.
He has taken a number of fine results this year, including that Sanremo win ahead of Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack Leopard), and victory on stage two of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen.
“There is always little things that can change a lot,” he said, when asked about his good performances. “Little changes in training, the team is good. It is a combination of different things.
“I feel really comfortable here. It gives me the right confidence for races and full support…I feel good.”
In the video below, which was recorded prior to the start of stage one, Ciolek speaks about his season thus far and also his goals in the weeks ahead. His Milan-Sanremo result ensures that his season can already be considered a success, but reassuringly he wants to keep the pressure on to clock up more results.
Unlike some riders who ease back after the Classics season, he knows there are many more races out there to win.
Sanremo helps, though. “A big victory like this always gives you some confidence,” he said. “But in the end you have to focus on the next races. It doesn’t change everything. We are still the same team and go to the next races like we did before.”